The martyr smiled beneath avenging power,
And braved the tyrant in his torturing hour!
When Europe sought your subject realms to gain,
And stretched her giant sceptre o’er the main,
Taught her proud barks the winding way to shape,
And braved the stormy spirit of the Cape;[16]
Children of Brahma! then was Mercy nigh
To wash the stain of blood’s eternal dye?
Did Peace descend, to triumph and to save,
When freeborn Britons crossed the Indian wave?